Two non-commissioned officers from the air force and two suspected loan sharks are under investigation for allegedly spying for China, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
Recent discoveries of Chinese espionage rings inside the military, which were reported to the authorities by service members, were evidence of the effectiveness of the military’s counter-intelligence education efforts, the ministry said.
The new case is being investigated by law enforcement personnel with full cooperation from the ministry, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The non-commissioned air force officers, men surnamed Chen (陳) and Hu (胡), were serving at an undisclosed radar station.
They sold classified information as payment for debts owed to loan sharks, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office said in court documents.
The alleged moneylenders, a woman surnamed Huang (黃) and a man surnamed Hsu (許), had connections to an unspecified agency within China’s secret intelligence service, the prosecutors’ office said.
The compromised information is believed to mainly consist of unit rotation schedules and national defense secrets gleaned from the two officers’ work at the base, it said.
Investigators on Tuesday last week summoned the four suspects for questioning and applied to have them remanded until the trial, citing concerns that they might tamper with evidence and collude with one another.
The Ciaotou District Court rejected the request, ruling that Chen be confined to his residence after paying bail of NT$100,000, while Hu was released without bail.
The alleged moneylenders were ordered to pay NT$200,000 bail and were confined to their homes.
The court acknowledged the seriousness of the charges against the four, but said that the prosecution had already secured the evidence and testimonies that would be needed for the case.
Detaining the four before the trial did not appear necessary or proportionate, it said.
Prosecutors said they would appeal the court’s decision tp the High Court’s Kaohsiung branch.
The Kaohsiung branch had not given notice that it had received the appeal as of press time last night.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei
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